Laugh Laugh Cry | MOPE @ VABF

Number 3 Gallery presents Laugh Laugh Cry, an exhibition of works by interdisciplinary art collective, MOPE. MOPE-Leah McInnis, Kai Choufour and Danielle Roberts-consider the satirical and the sublime. Through robot didactics and collaborative painting, this exhibition explores hypernarratives and dissects plot lines all thematically linked by a quest for ascension.

Presented alongside Laugh Laugh Cry is a publication of the same title, which includes text and imagery, offering extension to the multidimensional narrative of the installation. The text in Laugh Laugh Cry makes use of unconventional and idiosyncratic prose to chronicle the journey of three characters: Ding Ding, Carne and Stephanie. They find themselves turned into axolotls amidst their pursuit to fund their pilgrimage to the X Games, where they will premier their invention, the Grazer: “a low impact rotational sport board”.

As a nod to the trope of the artist pilgrimage the story makes use of British Columbia’s interior as a facade for the Nevada desert in the quest to reach the X Games. The work explores narratives that question substitutions of space and non-place through overly constructed environments that become stand in for others. Through their use of the hypernarrative and the absurd MOPE offers a productive confusion.

Through layers of collaboration, be it between Number 3 Gallery or amongst the Collective members and their relational space, the hands of three artists converge to create a multi level reality wherein a myriad of voices can be read as a singular. At once satirical and ripe with disenchantment the works, too, belong to a synonymous world.

MOPE is a collective of three visual artists that originated in Vancouver, in 2013. Their exhibitions are driven by pseudo-utopian narratives that they create, edit, and return to over time. Previous projects include Vortex to Eden, in which their extensive research of conspiracy theories culminated in an installation of collaborative abstract paintings and a fake currency (the fifty fifty arts collective, Victoria, 2018). Actual Losers examined identity and influence, combining narrative painting, video and Chindōgu inspired sculpture (Dynamo Arts Association, Vancouver, 2018) . Most recently, they are studying the effect of distance on collaborative storytelling as they negotiate a shared practice while inhabiting different spaces (physically and psychically). Members include Kai Choufour (Victoria, BC), Leah McInnis (Victoria, BC) and Danielle Roberts (Hamilton, ON).